A Minute Review for a Minute Game
Greatness doesn’t need a large package. Jewelry and money fit into small boxes. The single steak dinner tastes better than the cheap buffet. A tab of LSD packs a wallop. Quality video games don’t always come from triple-A developers and contain hundreds of hours of content. Like Gorogoa and Limbo, Minit radiates briefly but brilliantly like a pigeon on fire.
It is a flawless specimen, a delectable slice of instant gratification. However, some people enjoy scarfing down twelve-packs of tacos from Taco Bell as opposed to savoring a six-ounce sirloin, so Minit isn’t for everyone. Thus, I present a quick survey to see if Minit is a match for you, a review captured in 60-word chunks without too much filler.
What is it?
Imagine a top-down NES version of Majora’s Mask, reduce the timer from three days to 60 seconds, and you have something resembling Minit. Our hero discovers a cursed sword which ends his days after a minute. You respawn at home at the beginning of each day, and it’s up to you to use your meager time to break the curse.
In order to adventure outside of the confines of your house, you’ll have to find items (like coffee, money, gardening gloves, and flashlights) to overcome obstacles and access new areas. You’ll stumble upon simple enemies and puzzles, but with your unlimited lives, the challenge comes from overcoming them within your time constraints and finding clues pointing toward your next objective.
What’s good?
- Minit extracts all filler to leave pure cocaine. No needless NPCs, barren landscapes, or repetitive quests. Just fast-paced progress and addiction.
- Two additional missions can be unlocked which change the gameplay: a harder, 45-second “New Game+” and an easy, no-timer mode.
- The visuals are stark and unique, and the soundtrack makes sweet love to your ears without risk of syphilis.
What’s bad?
- It’s short, like an hour if you just beat the main mode on any percentage, you heathen.
- If you ignore the timer mechanic, the game plays like an average adventure game. It’s kind of like how Harry Potter is about child abuse and neglect if you take out the magic.
- It has black-and-white graphics, which is awkward because that’s segregation.
What’s the verdict?
Just like a review with an arbitrary word count, experimental games live or die based on whether the experiment justifies mutilating a tried-and-true mechanic. These quirky games also tend to appeal more toward critics than the regular gamer, like the much loved and abhorred Gone Home. For those who can appreciate ingenuity over longevity, Minit passes the quality assurance test.
Arbitrary Statistics:
- Score: 8.5
- Time Played: Over 5 hours
- Number of Players: 1
- Games Like It on Switch: Kamiko, Blossom Tales: The Sleeping Kings